


Dreaming in White

by MyceliumMythos



Category: RWBY
Genre: Dreams, F/F, Kissing, Letters, Love Letters, Pining, Reunions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 04:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9162322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyceliumMythos/pseuds/MyceliumMythos
Summary: After her mother's death, Ruby dreamed in red.  Since the Fall of Beacon, she has dreamed in white, and all her letters to Weiss have gone unanswered.





	

Ruby had been very young when her mother died.  Almost too young to remember her properly.  Yang had once asked if she was jealous of her because of that—because she had memories of their mom that Ruby never would.  Ruby had replied that of course she wasn’t, and that it was probably for the best since Ruby had a terrible memory anyway.  Then she had asked Yang to remind her of what their mom’s cookies had tasted like again.

And it was the truth.  Ruby was not jealous of Yang for the memories she held of their mom.  She did, however, get frustrated with herself sometimes for not being able to distinguish between what in her own mind was a real memory and what was simply a strange amalgamation of old pictures, old stories, and her own old emotions from when her mom had been alive and from when Uncle Qrow had told her that her mom had been killed.

The most prominent example of this was the recurring dream Ruby had been having for years in which she was surrounded by swirling and scattering red rose petals.  When she dreamt of this, Ruby always felt as though she was surrounded by her mother’s presence.  As a result, she came to assume that this dream was actually connected to a memory of seeing Summer use her semblance and made her believe that, like Ruby’s, it had involved the presence of red rose petals.  Thinking this had made her feel close to her mother in a way she rarely got to experience outside of when people told her how much she looked like Summer.

Then, when she was about 10, she had asked Yang what their mom’s semblance actually was and, upon learning that it had nothing to do with red roses, realized the dream might be nothing more than an image her wild, young imagination had concocted when trying to make sense of what death was.  A flower scattering to the winds, or blood spilt onto the snow in the pattern of petals.

Either way, it made Ruby realize how little she really knew about her mother.  That was when she started making more frequent trips to visit her grave to talk to her.  Before she started attending Signal Academy, Yang often joined her on these trips, and when she became more invested in her own friends and training, their dad started to join her as well.  He usually kept his distance from the grave itself, but it was still better than the silence he’d held on the matter of her death for nearly 10 years.

These visits and conversations helped Ruby learn to accept her mother’s death in a way she’d never been able to as a young child.  She still dreamt at times of red rose petals, but not nearly so often.

Then, after the Fall of Beacon, Ruby began to dream in another color.  Frequently, her dreams did contain real memories of that day.  After all, try as she might to keep moving forward with her life, she knew she would never be able to rid her mind of Penny and Pyrrha’s horrifying final moments, and given what they meant to her, she knew she didn’t want to.  She just wished those moments wouldn’t so often leave her waking up in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat, her heart racing as if she was back there at Beacon Tower.

But when she was not visited by those memories in her sleep, Ruby realized she had begun to dream in white.  White flakes all around her, all of them falling, slowly.  These dreams started shortly after she set out with Jaune, Nora, and Ren on the road, and given the weather at the time, it was easy for Ruby to assume that they came because of the sheer amount of snow her new makeshift team had to clear away just to get a good night’s sleep. 

However, as season turned from winter to spring and their travels took them from Sanus to Anima, and the dream of white still followed her, Ruby began to wonder if it was connected to whatever had happened atop Beacon Tower.  All she could remember from there, after all, was Pyrrha and _her_ , then cold, then blinding white.  To leave behind so much ice, there might have been some snow involved, Ruby reasoned.

Then, Team RNJR began to run out of supplies.  Towns with food to spare for travelers were much harder to come by in Anima than Sanus, it turned out.  Or perhaps, as Ren pointed out, the longer past the Fall and the more bandits and Grimm converged on defenseless villages, the more villages all around the world would suffer.  They were down to their last dust cartridges as well, and Crescent Rose and StormFlower would only be half the weapons they could be without those. 

It was Nora who had come up with the solution.  While bemoaning the low contents in the nightly stew pot and how light their bags had been getting the past few weeks without proper ammunition, Nora had rolled her eyes and said, “Gee, if only there was _someone_ we knew who was super rich and well-connected to the dust industry who could just _send us_ this stuff.”

“You think we should ask Weiss for supplies,” Ren said, boiling down her sarcasm.

“Well, I’m definitely not thinking we should ask Professor Oobleck for an early birthday present.”

At her suggestion, Jaune looked across the campfire to Ruby, who was staring down at her torn stockings.  “How about it, Ruby?” Jane asked cautiously.  “Do you think Weiss could come through for us?”

Ruby hesitated, then nodded.  “I know she would,” she said with certainty.  “It’s just…I haven’t talked to her since that night.  Dad said she came by our house to try to say good-bye to me before _her_ dad took her away, but I wasn’t awake then, so…”  Her voice trailed off, her emotions on the matter too complex to voice in the moment.  In the months since Beacon’s fall, Ruby had worried about all her teammates.  She had worried about Yang recovery and if she would understand why Ruby had to leave, because at times, Ruby wasn’t even sure herself.  She had worried about where Blake had gone and the amount of guilt she knew she must be feeling, because Ruby herself still felt it almost every day.

But Weiss, her partner, her best friend, her—

Weiss, alone against her will in Atlas, living once again under the roof of the family and the company she had told Ruby she only felt shame in now—

 _Weiss_ —

“I can talk to her, if you need me to,” Jaune volunteered.  “I think we were on pretty okay terms the last time we talked, so it should be—”

“No!” Ruby cut him off, louder than she’d intended.  Coughing awkwardly, she leaned back on her log and repeated, “Um, no, that’s okay.  I can talk to her.  I just…need some paper.”

With Beacon Tower down, telecommunication in Anima was spotty enough.  Team RNJR knew there was no way they would be able to call or message someone in Atlas from a small village, so instead, they had to settle for the traditional method of letter-writing, as unreliable as it was, with so many transports being attacked by Grimm.  As soon as they reached the next village in their path, Jaune went to the market to haggle for supplies.  Ren and Nora took what little money he could spare to the post office to use a combination of bribery and strong arming to make sure that their mail was particularly well taken care of.

All that was left for Ruby to do was sit down on a bench outside of the town hall and actually write the letter.

Ruby didn’t think she’d ever felt as small as she did in that moment with her pen hovering above the page as blank and open as a field covered in freshly fallen snow.  It was a daunting task, trying to pick the right words out of all human language to describe the months that had passed since the Fall.  How could she even begin to say what she’d been experienced?  Should she tell her about all the Grimm she’d fought?  All the villages she’d helped?  Should she tell her about all her travels with Team RNJR?  About how much better Jaune had gotten as a fighter?  About how much fun it had been working on new combo attacks with Nora?  About how Ren had started to come out of his shell when discussing how excited he was to see his homeland again?

Should she tell her that she hadn’t forgotten about Team RWBY?  Should she tell her she knew they would all be together again someday?

Should she tell Weiss how much she missed her?

Ruby sighed, putting pen to paper, and deciding simply to start it with the way all good letters should.

_Dear Weiss_

She would never remember what exactly spilled out from her after that.  It seemed like a lot, her messy scrawl filling up nearly eight full pages, but at the same time, it didn’t feel like nearly enough.  After she first put it in the envelope, she even had to open it again just to double-check that she’d actually remembered to ask for supplies. 

But she did remember how she signed it, because it was the way all good letters should be signed.

_Love, Ruby_

She also remembered that the second time, she sealed the envelope with a kiss before handing it off with a prayer to no one in particular that it managed to find its way into her hands.

The night after she sent the letter, Ruby dreamt in white again.  For the first time however, she realized there was no chill to the snow that fell in orderly lines around her.  There was warmth in it, and comfort, and when Ruby awoke next, she felt as if she was saying good-bye to a familiar presence.

Jaune, Nora, and Ren were all both shocked and elated to find a crate of supplies waiting for them in the next village—food, ammunition, dust cartridges, and even spare parts for their weapons, all stamped with the Schnee Dust Company logo.  Ruby was glad to see the supplies that would enable them to continue their journey, but she couldn’t help but feel disappointed as well that there was no note to accompany it.  She couldn’t help but wonder if it was because Weiss was mad at her for not saying good-bye after the Fall.

Still, it had been something of a cathartic experience for Ruby to spill her guts like that.  She began writing more letters to Weiss after that—at least one a week, sometimes two a day.  She stockpiled them and guarded them from water, fire, and Grimm damage at all costs, delivering them all in a bundle at the post office of each village.  And she felt like she talked about everything and nothing in them—everything being all her adventures, all her thoughts, every person she met, every time Nora got struck by lightning, and nothing being everything she left out, if only because she couldn’t find the words to say what it was.

She gave Weiss her heart in those letters, but village after village, it continued to be that the only thing Weiss gave back was a crate of supplies.  It frustrated her.  With the world collapsing around her, Ruby knew it was such a small thing to be frustrated over, but it was a thing that meant so much to her.  She was the farthest she had ever been from home, and even with Team RNJR, she felt more lonely than she had ever been.  The longer their journey went, the more she wished she could go back home and see all her friends and family again.  The more letters she wrote and the more times she dreamt in white, the more she wanted what they represented to be real and in front of her again.

She tried to write about these frustrations and wants in her letters sparingly because she didn’t want Weiss to get madder at her, and she still started and ended all of them, “Dear Weiss” and “Love, Ruby.”

All until—

“Weiss?”

Ruby stood dumbstruck on the path leading up to Mistral, staring at the figure standing with her arms crossed in the city’s gate.  She blinked and rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was dreaming in white again, but when she looked again there was no phantom who had disappeared.  There was only…Weiss.  Weiss with longer hair and Weiss in shorter heels and Weiss with a more travel-worn dress and pack than Ruby would have ever thought she would deign to don, but Weiss nevertheless.

 _Weiss_.

The rest of Team RNJR had stopped around her as well and were quicker to come up with things to say.  “Weiss!  You’re here!” Jaune exclaimed.  “How—”

He was cut off as Weiss sharply raised a single less-than-perfectly manicured finger to shush him.  She kept her eyes trained Ruby, and Ruby couldn’t help but stare at her.  Weiss then lowered her finger and reached behind her for a piece of paper tucked in her pack.  Even from a distance, Ruby could see how worn it was from all the times it had been unfolded, looked at, and smudged with inky hands as its contents were edited.  Weiss held this grubby piece of paper up before herself, cleared her throat, and began to read her letter.

“My Dearest Ruby,” she said, and as she spoke, cementing the reality of her presence here, Ruby felt something catch in her throat.  “I hope this letter finds you well,” Weiss continued on.  I am currently on my way to Mistral, and hope to greet you there.  Given the demand for transportation technologies at this time, my journey is taking longer than expected, though I expect not as long as yours.”

Weiss paused briefly to look over her paper at Ruby again, and beneath her veneer of control, she saw concern in her eyes.  Ruby wondered, what did Weiss have to be worried about?  Wasn’t she the one who was mad at her?

She began to read again.  “I feel it is important for you to know that I have received—what I assume to be—the majority of your letters.  I read them all, despite certain issues with spelling, and while normally, I would scold you on your atrocious penmanship, I also want you to know that they have meant the world to me.  Living under my father’s roof, these months have been very challenging.  There have been many times when I almost gave in to despair, and one of the only things that kept me afloat in a sea of Schnee family politics was my desire to better myself so that when I could meet you again at the end of your road, I would be in the best condition possible to support you.

“If there is one challenge I am guilty of not being able to meet as of late, it is summoning the courage to reply to your multitude of messages.  I suppose you are wondering _why_ I have not written you back over these months.  It…it is as simple as that…”  Her voice wavered slightly as she continued on, “It is as simple as that it was too hard for me to do.  I suspect we have both faced a great many changes in our lives, but between us, you were the only one brave enough to try to write them down.  You always were the brave one.

“I couldn’t do that.  I found it easier to send you dust than give you some sign I could hear everything you were going through.  I felt that if I tried to express myself before I knew precisely what I needed to say, it would only get in the way of the ultimate goal.  I would be giving in to my own desires before I knew exactly what I wanted and how to obtain it, thus hindering my progress.  However, because I am beginning to learn that asking perfection of anyone, even yourself, is a very unhealthy habit, I decided to at least attempt to put what I need to say here.  Ruby Rose, I—OOF!”

Weiss’s read was cut off as she was slammed to the ground in a shower of rose petals in one moment, and in the next, felt a pair a lips pressed against her own.  Her hand released the page without a second thought as she wrapped her arms around Ruby in a tight embrace. 

When the kiss broke off, Ruby and Weiss stared at each other, their eyes full of tears and their smiles full of joy.  “I missed you, Weiss,” Ruby said, her voice small and cracking under the weight of all her fulfilled hopes and dreams.  “I missed you _so much_.”

Weiss freed her hand again to tuck Ruby’s hair behind her ear and then gently brush her cheek.  “You could’ve broken our teeth, going at that speed,” Weiss scolded her, unable to keep herself from immediately adding, “But I missed you too.  More than I could say.”

Ruby leaned down to kiss her again as beside them, Weiss’s letter was caught by a breeze and carried away, its unspoken words lost to the wind.


End file.
